Interior Secretary Tours Lehigh Canal With Ritter

September 01, 1988|by TIM DARRAGH, The Morning Call

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel was above, alongside and on the water yesterday as he toured the Lehigh River canal with U.S. Rep. Don Ritter, who is attempting to gain support for his bill designating the Lehigh and Delaware River canals a national heritage corridor.

At a press conference following their tour, Hodel said he would not say if he would support the project but said he was "obviously" impressed by the canal and its prospects for preservation. The canal, he said, is "not just another pretty corridor."

Hodel's support is crucial to the creation of the corridor and the commission that would oversee it. The Reagan administration initially opposed the project.

Ritter and Hodel toured the Canal Museum, rode bicycles on the bike path adjacent to the river, took a canal barge ride and observed the canal from Lehigh Gap to Easton by helicopter.

During the tour, Hodel said, he witnessed "a tremendous amount of community involvement" in restoring the canal.

Asked if he thought the project was a "local historic preservation effort" - as the Reagan administration initially said - or if it was a legitimate project for federal involvement, Hodel said he agreed with both positions.

Ritter said he was not sure that the project would come together if the federal government did not have an active role. The National Park Service would be able to offer "crucial" technical, preservation and engineering skills to the project, he said.

The commission, Ritter added, is needed to bring together the communities along the canal, which so far have been like "a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces have not been put into place."

Both Ritter and Hodel admitted that the Office of Management and Budget has doubts about taking on another federal project in this era of budget deficits.

"OMB starts off with significant reservations," Hodel said.

Preserving the canal, the two said, would be historically, aesthetically and economically good for the region. The historic corridor would give the people of the Lehigh Valley "access to their roots," Ritter said. As an attractive addition to the area, the corridor also would enhance the quality of life, an important point businesses consider when contemplating relocating.

The bill, which Ritter co-sponsored with U.S. Rep. Peter Kostmayer, D-8th District, would provide $1.7 million over five years to start up the project. "I look at it as a seed," Ritter said.

Officials agreed the cost of restoring the two canals would be much greater. J. Steven Humphrey of the Canal Museum staff said one study predicted improvements to the Delaware River Canal alone would cost $31 million. But Hodel and Ritter said the entire sum would not necessarily come from the federal government, but from foundations, corporations, individuals and other levels of government.

Hugh Moore Park historian Lance Metz said the $31-million figure was a "Cadillac idea" and that restoration of the Delaware Canal could require less money.

Ritter also said the bill says land along the canal could be purchased as long as both parties are willing. Hodel said the provision is an important protection to landowners who do not want to give up their property.

"Forced sales," he said, "are not a very nice way to proceed for the federal government."

The Ritter-Kostmayer bill is moving through the House and a similar bill proposed by Sen. John Heinz is in the U.S. Senate.

The event took on political implications as Ritter and Hodel responded to charges by Ed Reibman, Ritter's Democratic challenger for Congress. Reibman yesterday issued a statement supporting the corridor legislation and commended Ritter and Kostmayer. But he also said that in Ritter's nearly 10 years in Congress, he "has ignored or opposed environmental concerns and the protection of our wildlife and natural resources."

Reibman also noted that Ritter voted against the Interior Department's budget from 1982 to 1987, but supported it this year. "Given his near total lack of support," Reibman said, "Mr. Ritter should not share in the successes of either Secretary Hodel or the Department of the Interior."

Ritter said he has been working on "providing regional leadership" for the project before the 1986 election cycle, and was therefore not open to charges of election-year politicking.

Additionally, Hodel said Ritter voted against an "incredibly irresponsible' ' department budget because Congress added more money to the budget than was needed. In one year, he said, Congress added $600 million to the department's $4 billion budget.

Ritter also said that every time Reibman criticizes him, he calls for more spending. "Throwing money at the problem is not the answer," he said.

Ritter denied that he was doing the same with the heritage corridor bill because he has been advocating a balanced budget and curtailed growth in federal spending.

"This is $1.7 million over five years," he said. "This is not exactly a big-ticket item."